The driver involved in a hit and run that killed an 18-year-old York teenager walking home from a party was convicted of drink-driving today.

Lee Bardy: died after party in York

But Beverley Jayne Scanlon, 36, was acquitted of any responsibility for causing the collision at the junction of Clarence Street and Union Terrace car park in the city.

The parents of the crash victim, Lee Bardy, were extremely disappointed by the outcome of the trial.

His mother, Linda, said: "She hasn't just ruined our lives but also those of his friends who were there and their lives, hundreds of people really."

His father, Ian, said: "I just hope she has to live with it for the rest of her life."

Mr and Mrs Bardy said that their son had passed his driving test a month before he died.

But he decided not to drive to the birthday party on June 5, 1998 from which he and his friends were returning home at the time of the collision.

Ordering the jury to return non-guilty verdicts on causing death by dangerous driving and causing death by careless driving while unfit through drink, Judge David Bentley, QC, said: "I think she (Scanlon) can count herself extremely fortunate."

He made his direction because the Crown Prosecution Service had been unable to prove that the collision was not caused by Lee Bardy, the dead man, stepping or staggering into the road because he had been drinking and possibly taking drugs.

The judge warned that Scanlon, of Eastfield Avenue, Haxby would "at the very least lose her driving licence for a substantial period."

And he added that her failure to stop was a bad offence.

He adjourned sentence on the drink-driving offence for a pre-sentence report.

The jury heard that Scanlon had drunk about eight halves of lager and had a glass of champagne before starting her journey, had tried to go home by taxi and herself believed she was unfit to drive.

Scanlon, principal education planning officer for City of York Council, pleaded guilty to drink- driving after learning that the judge was about to order her acquittal on the other charges.

Judge Bentley said that only one of the eye witnesses had claimed that he had seen the collision, and that all of them had been drinking.

Because of that, because of the length of time since the incident on June 6, 1998 and because their accounts in the witness box differed from the statements they had made to police last year, their evidence could not be relied on.

He reminded the jury at Doncaster Crown Court that Scanlon had suggested to police that the victim may have stepped into the road and said that the evidence of the damage to the car supported this.

He criticised two police women who arrived within minutes of the collision before Mr Bardy and his injured friend, Duncan Haines were taken to hospital.

He said that it could have helped if they had drawn a diagram of how the two men were lying.

"It is difficult to see why they didn't bother. This was obviously a serious hit and run incident in which people had been badly injured."

He also criticised the police for not making a note of where a cigarette carton, coins, a sweet and other items that could have come from the two men had fallen on the road.

He told the jury that it was impossible to decide exactly where the collision had taken place because there was no evidence of where exactly items had fallen as a result.

Judge Bentley said: "It is dreadful to see a young life snuffed out and there is a natural tendency in that situation to blame the driver and want to see the driver pay, and so the driver should pay if the evidence is good enough to justify conviction."

He added that the Bardy family had suffered a distressing loss. "Unhappily there is nothing anyone can do put that right."

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